"We've gotta start Portal 3," series co-writer Erik Wolpaw urges Valve

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Wolpaw reckons Portal 3 would be profitable for Valve, and yeah, that tracks

Portal 2
(Image credit: Valve)

Portal and Portal 2 co-writer Erik Wolpaw reckons Valve has "gotta start Portal 3" before it's too late. 

As Wolpaw said on a recent episode of the Kiwi Talkz podcast (transcribed by VGC), his message "to whoever" is simple: "We've gotta start Portal 3."

"I am not getting any younger," he said. "We are reaching the point where it's crazy to think [we're] literally going to be too old to work on Portal 3, so we should just do it." 

Wolpaw also singled out Valve boss Gabe Newell in a winking nod to the profitability of another Portal game, simultaneously encouraging fans to "send mail to Gabe" if they "want some Portal 3." 

"You would make money, but what kind of money will you make?" he said. "Are you gonna make Counter-Strike: GO money? Probably not. But having said that, maybe every game doesn't need to make Counter-Strike: GO money, you know, Gabe, if you're listening." 

As eager as he is to return to the Portal universe – "I’d work on another Portal in a second," he said – Wolpaw acknowledged that it would be difficult to convince Valve to pursue Portal 3, let alone to assemble a dedicated development team from the company's many moving parts. He compared the task to sparking a "revolution," which is probably a fair description of the famously sequel-shy studio. 

While Valve insists it has multiple games in active development, Portal has been quiet for years, though that hasn't stopped fans from making their own sequels. Apart from a long-awaited Switch port, the last we saw of Portal was the in-universe miniature game Aperture Desk Job, which was positioned as a tutorial of sorts for Valve's Steam Deck handheld. A recent datamine suggests Valve canceled a Portal paint game as well as a Half-Life: Alyx follow-up, but there are no traces of the Portal 3 that Wolpaw and many fans are hoping for. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.